This document provides an overview of Brenda Dervin's Sense-Making Methodology (SMM). It discusses Dervin's background and research focuses. It then explains Dervin's sense-making theory, which views human information behavior as gap-bridging to construct understanding of the world. The document outlines Dervin's SMM, including its interview techniques and questions. SMM interviews follow participatory and dialogic principles to understand an individual's sense-making process. The document provides examples of SMM interview approaches and fundamental mandates for applying the methodology.
This document provides an overview of Brenda Dervin's Sense-Making Methodology (SMM). It discusses Dervin's background and research focuses. It then explains Dervin's sense-making theory, which views human information behavior as gap-bridging to construct understanding of the world. The document outlines Dervin's SMM, including its interview techniques and questions. SMM interviews follow participatory and dialogic principles to understand an individual's sense-making process. The document provides examples of SMM interview approaches and fundamental mandates for applying the methodology.
This document provides an overview of Brenda Dervin's Sense-Making Methodology (SMM). It discusses Dervin's background and research focuses. It then explains Dervin's sense-making theory, which views human information behavior as gap-bridging to construct understanding of the world. The document outlines Dervin's SMM, including its interview techniques and questions. SMM interviews follow participatory and dialogic principles to understand an individual's sense-making process. The document provides examples of SMM interview approaches and fundamental mandates for applying the methodology.
This document provides an overview of Brenda Dervin's Sense-Making Methodology (SMM). It discusses Dervin's background and research focuses. It then explains Dervin's sense-making theory, which views human information behavior as gap-bridging to construct understanding of the world. The document outlines Dervin's SMM, including its interview techniques and questions. SMM interviews follow participatory and dialogic principles to understand an individual's sense-making process. The document provides examples of SMM interview approaches and fundamental mandates for applying the methodology.
Education: B.S., Cornell University , 1960 M.A., Michigan State University, 1968 Ph.D., Michigan State University, 1971 Ph.D. (honorary), University of Helsinki, 2000
Research Focuses: “Philosophy of communication, communication methodology, dialogic communication, participatory communication, public communication campaigns, Emeritus Faculty user information seeking and use, audience reception, School of Communication and user sense-making.” The Ohio State University
http://communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu/sense-making/dervinCVbrief.html Four Research Fields on sensemaking or sense-making
a. Human-Computer Interaction (Russell’s sensemaking)
b. Cognitive System Engineering (Llein’s sensemaking)
c. Organizational Communication (Weick’s sensemking;
Snowden’s sense-making/sensemaking)
d. Library & information Science (Dervin’s sense-making)
(Dervin & Naumer, 2009)
Dervin’s sense-making theory: Theory for Methodology
• Theorize human sense-making and sense-unmaking
• Focuses on dialogue and verbings; • Exemplifies human information behavior through the time-space context; • Studies human information use from the perspective of the actor instead of the observer; • Conceptualizes human information use as behaviors of a series of unending (circling)step-takings (gap- bridging)to construct sense of their world. Dervin’s sense-making theory: Philosophical Premises and Assumptions • The fundamental assumption is the “discontinuity” (Dervin, 1992, p. 62).
• Individuals experience and observe their world
differently and need to create meaning or make sense of their world (Dervin, 1992, p.62); Dervin’s sense-making theory: Philosophical Premises and Assumptions
• “Information is created at a specific moment in
time-space by one or more humans, but not in a strict constructivist sense” (Dervin, 1992, p 64).
• “Information is not seen as independent of human
being but as products of human observation in both physical time-space and psychological time-space according to the variation of people’s situations and experiences” (Foreman-Wernet, 2003, p.6). Dervin’s Sense-Making Metaphoric Triangulation
(Dervin, 2010, p. 156)
Dervin’s Sense-Making Methodology (SMM)
• Develops an explicitly participatory and dialogic
methodology for interviewing; • Draws from the theory and implements the theory to the interview practices; • Can be used in both qualitative and quantitative studies, (e.g., focus groups, surveys, in-depth interviews, guided participant observation); • Directs varied interviewing approaches. The Roster of SMM Questions
(Dervin,& Foreman-Wernet, (2012, p. 157)
The Roster of SMM Questions
(Dervin,& Foreman-Wernet, (2012, p. 157)
SMM Interviewing Approaches
• SMM micro-moment time-line interview
• SMM life-time interview
• SMM micro-element interview
• SMM outcome chaining interview
• SMM Q/ing interview
• SMM focus group interview (Dervin, 2008)
Variations of SMM Micro-moment Time-line Interview
(Dervin, 2008, p. 24)
Fundamental Mandates of SMM Interviewing • “Minimal intrusion by researchers of their credentials and expertise. • Giving informants permission to not be representatives of collectivities but to be aware observers of collectivities. • Understanding that informants do not come to interviews with answers on the tips of their tongues, or even well-articulated in their minds. • Having informants talk only about situations real to them, that they have experienced. • Understanding that "real" to informants does not mean objectively real. Observations of how brutally imposed power hurts is "real" to informants but so are informants' dreams of what would have helped and explanations of causes and consequences”. (Dervin, 2008, pp. 15-16) Fundamental Mandates of SMM Interviewing • “Interviewing to build trust and willingness to disclose by implementing an interviewing approach focusing on the verbs of communicating in order to reach for an understanding of the elusive noun worlds of informants as seen by informants. • Allowing informants to be the same and/or different as they move across time- space. • Allowing informants to be confused and muddled; and at the same time intelligent and strategic. • Allowing informants to see situations outside the boxes of our frameworks. • Using SMM questions to channel informant talk to the "essences" of SMM, to the verbing universals of communicating. (Dervin, 2008, pp. 15-16) Fundamental Mandates of SMM Interviewing • Allowing informants to be aware creators of their worlds. • Understanding that precision in question-asking may be less important than trust building and treating informants as individual sense-makers. • Using redundancy during interviewing as an important communication tool for building the bridge between informant stories and researcher understandings. • Inviting informants to talk about their situations in terms of how they are constrained and free of and freed by multiple forces -- their own, those from others, those from structures. (Dervin, 2008, pp. 15-16) References Dervin, B. (1992). From the mind's eye of the 'user': The sense-making qualitative- quantitative methodology. In J.D. Glazer & R.R. Powell (Eds.), Qualitative research in information management (pp. 61-84). Englewood: CO: Libraries Unlimited. Dervin, B (2008, July). Interviewing as dialectical practice: Sense-making methodology as exemplar. Presented at International of Association Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) Meeting. Stockholm, Sweden. Dervin, B. & Foreman-Wernet, L. (2012). Sense-Making Methodology as an approach to understanding and designing for campaign audiences: A turn to communicating communicatively.. In Atkin, C. & Rice, R..E., Public Communication Campaigns, 4th ed. (pp. 147-162). Sage Publications. Dervin, B., & Naumer, C. M. (2009) Sense-Making. In Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences, 3rd Ed. New York: Taylor and Francis. Foreman-Wernet, L. (2003). Rethinking communication: Introducing the Sense-Making Methodology. Reprinted in: B. Dervin & L. Foreman-Wernet (with E. Lauterbach) (Eds.), Sense-Making Methodology reader: Selected writings of Brenda Dervin pp. 3-16). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton. Q&A
(Rotman-UTP Publishing) Marc Hurwitz, Samantha Hurwitz - Leadership is Half the Story_ A Fresh Look at Followership, Leadership, and Collaboration-University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Div.pdf
(Rotman-UTP Publishing) Marc Hurwitz, Samantha Hurwitz - Leadership is Half the Story_ A Fresh Look at Followership, Leadership, and Collaboration-University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Div.pdf
